Which one?

[panther3769]

I have just bought a new home and I am finishing the basement and I was thinking about putting a projector instead of a regular TV. I am not that familar w/projectors, I just know a 10 x 10 wall/screen is the size to use. I am willing to spend upto 5k, but trying to shoot for lower. Also, can a smooth white wall work instead of a screen? Thanks for any input!!!

[hddummy]

My answer is the Panasonic PT-AE3000. That is what I would buy with a good budget. Without any specifics about you, your room, your expectations or your feature requirements, nobody can make a recommendation with any good rationality.

I'm afraid it's just not that simple. You need to describe a lot more about your room dimensions, equipment, seating location, light control, projector placement, etc, etc, etc. Please be a little more in depth with the goals and expectations for your project and we can be a lot more helpful. I'm not saying this to be a pain in the butt, but we would really love to help you find the right equipment for you and your room. Your $5k projector could be completely different from my $5k projector based on all these variables.

There are a number of very good DIY screen possibilities ranging from paint, laminate, curtain fabric and more.

[Tommy]

Check out this link where they review most of this years current projectors:

http://www.projectorreviews.com/1080...ctor/index.php

Also many do have DIY screens that there happy with but honestly with everything going high def and goals of getting the absolute best picture quality possible, I really would recommend spending on getting a good screen

[panther3769]

The room size is almost a perfect square, 20x20 ft. We have garden level windows, so there is some natural light, but I am getting some black outs for them if I get a projector. I want to be able to watch movies, sport games and video games (goal). I am not sure about how far away the seating will be but I am sure around 15ftish. As far as surround sound, I will have a 7.1 system. I hope this answers some of the ?'s, thanks again!

[Sonnie]

I think the Panny 3000 is a pretty hot PJ right now. I just got my hooked up and the Lens Memory feature is pretty neat, although not perfect, it is the best fix out there for 2.35:1 screens. It has excellent PQ straight out of the box... good enough that pro calibration is really not needed.

Spend the difference on an Elite screen...

[mechman]

panther3769 wrote:

Also, can a smooth white wall work instead of a screen? Thanks for any input!!!

Come talk to us in the screen forum when you're ready! If you like lights on while you're watching sports you may want to go with a gray screen.

Just start a new thread.

And if it were me, I like DLPs over LCDs. But the Panasonic has gotten good reviews.

[paints]

Big thumbs up for my Panny AX200U. It's 720 HD but supports gaming well and is perfect for sports as it is bright and I want a bit of light in my room when watching sports.

If you check out the Shacks screen section. I'm going with the DIY Black Widow screen as it's perfect for my needs to have a bit of light in the room.

[Anthony]

I installed a Panny A3000U and Elite screen in a theater last year. Both are very good products and were very easy to set up. The picture was great out of the box. I didn't need to adjust anything other than focus.